PUREfi Wealth LLC Makes New $917,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

PUREfi Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,605 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $917,000. Accenture accounts for approximately 0.9% of PUREfi Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of Accenture by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $87,566,000 after acquiring an additional 12,993 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Accenture by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 45.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,874 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $662,000 after purchasing an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $222,000. Finally, Probity Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $208,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE ACN opened at $387.99 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $364.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $353.68. The stock has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.